Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Growing crops indoors North of the Notches
A big (by New England standards) hydroponic greenhouse that uses combined heat and power from natural gas to grow lettuce - and later, maybe, tomatoes - is being built on a former landfill site in the city of Berlin, way up North of the Notches. Here's a Union-Leader...
N.H. deep-drilling rock cores still need a forever home
The U.S. Geological Survey recently announced more than $4 million in grants for states to preserve "vital geologic data" but, as I found after checking, it won't help the 19 tons of rock cores drilled beneath Conway i n1975. They are still being prepped and seeking...
A two-state test of how renewables can save power and money
News that came out Tuesday about electricity prices in miserably hot Texas and in delightfully temperate New Hampshire reflected the biggest advantage of renewable energy, one that’s often overlooked: The fuel is free. Texas is sweltering under an unexpectedly early...
Can’t find an electric car to buy? It’s partly our own fault, NH
As the United States belatedly gets on the electric-vehicle bandwagon and people everywhere are scrambling to find cars on dealers’ lots, would-be buyers in New Hampshire are facing a self-imposed obstacle with a clumsy name: ZEV/LEV. That acronym, standing for...
N.H. patents through June 12
By Targeted News Service WASHINGTON – The following federal patents were assigned in New Hampshire from June 5 through June 12. *** Parallel Wireless Assigned Patent for 5G Native Architecture Parallel Wireless, Nashua, New Hampshire, has been assigned a patent (No....
An easier way to see how much rooftop solar is in New England
If you need yet another distraction online, take note that ISO-NE has improved their realtime chart of the 6-state grid's system load, incorporating behind-the-meter solar (i.e., rooftop) directly into the chart. Previously you had to toggle a switch off and on and...
Mysterious black goop covering NH and Maine beaches was …
... bugs. Specifically, the wooly adelgid that's damaging hemlock forests throughout the East. The reports came in around Jun 7 of last year from a series of beaches in southern Maine and N.H. (and one in Mass.) of black stuff at water's edge staining people's feet....
Surprising no. of NH people think a pandemic is a great time to have kids
After years and years of declining birth rates, New Hampshire has surprised just about everybody by seeing the country’s biggest baby boom last year with a birth rate that rebounded 7% since pre-pandemic times, far more than any other state. Whether it will...
I keep forgetting: Net metering isn’t just for solar
A city looking for 100% clean electricity could hardly ask for anything better than three hydropower sites within its borders, so I’ve often wondered why Concord doesn’t make more of a splash, so to speak, with the three small dams in Penacook. Wonder no more. As of...
Gulf of Maine productivity has fallen by half
Phytoplankton are about 65% less productive in the Gulf of Maine than they were two decades ago because water temperature and salinity have risen as a warming planet alters ocean pattersn, scientists at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay, Maine,...
Return to the Concord Monitor
Science Cafe NHAbout Granite Geek
Dave Brooks has written a science/tech column since 1991 – yes, that long – and has written this blog since 2006, keeping an eye on topics of geekish interest in and around New Hampshire, from software to sea level rise, population dynamics to printing (3-D, of course). He moderates monthly Science Cafe NH discussions, beer in hand, and discusses the geek world regularly on WGIR-AM radio..
Brooks earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics but got lost on the way to the Ivory Tower and ended up in a newsroom. He has reported for newspapers from Tennessee to New England. Rummage through his bag of awards you’ll find oddities like three Best Blog prizes from the New Hampshire Press Association and a Writer of the Year award from the N.H. Farm and Forest Bureau, of all places. He joined the Concord Monitor in 2015.